EDM is no longer the mainstream force it once was. The era of Avicii and Swedish House Mafia era seems far away in a time where self-aware indie artists dominate the charts. But what really caused the decline of electronic dance music in the mainstream?
What is EDM?
EDM is short for “Electronic Dance Music” and is an umbrella term to describe different electronic music genres such as house, trance and electro house. Its origins can be traced back to the 1980s in the American Midwest cities of Detroit and Chicago, where it was characterized by strong synthesizers incorporated into dance music. The genre quickly rose in popularity and spread to the rest of the world.
The heyday of EDM (2010-2015)
During the early 2010s, EDM was a booming genre that generated billions of dollars every year. Producers within the genre like Martin Garrix, Avicii, Calvin Harris and David Guetta regularly topped charts with songs containing little to no lyrics (i.e Animals by Martin Garrix).
Around the same period, an EDM festival boom had just taken place. In 2014, Europe’s biggest EDM festival Tomorrowland sold out two weekends (360 000 tickets) in just under an hour. On the other side of the Atlantic, Ultra Music Festival had issues with the site crashing because of the high demand for tickets. Already established EDM festivals such as Mysteryland and UMF tried their luck abroad and expanded internationally. By the end of the year in 2014, there seemed to be no limit to how big EDM could be.
When EDM started losing momentum
The declime of EDM in mainstream music happened in an undramatic and almost subtle sort of way. It can best be explained by the view count of the yearly “aftermovie” released by Tomorrowland on YouTube. Each year after the festival is done, Tomorrowland releases an aftermovie which captures the best moments from that year’s festival. The most viewed aftermovie dates back to 2012. The second most viewed one? 2013… and so on. Even though EDM stayed popular the following years, something had happened.
The stereotypical 128 bpm beat with a big, punchy kick drum started appearing less and less in the top charts. Maybe the clearest example of the downfall was the entertainment company SFX, the self-described as “the world’s largest electronic music event producer”, which went bankrupt in February of 2016. SFX owned many of the popular EDM festival as well as the leading electronic music platform Beatport. A month later, Avicii announced his retirement from touring following continuous health issues.
Another sign that EDM’s mainstream moment was fading came when Hollywood tried capitalizing on the moment and made a movie about an aspiring DJ played by Zac Efron. The movie, which was named We Are Your Friends, grossed only $1.8 million from over 2000 theaters, making it one of the worst openings in cinema history.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2016, the Canadian dance music producer deadmau5 described how the genre had run out of innovators and gotten oversaturated and commercialized. “It’s really not grassroots anymore” he told the magazine. Later that year, Pitchfork released an article stating that EDM was a combination of rave culture, youthful hedonism and corporations eager to make money.
Is EDM dying or just changing?
Even though EDM is far past its primetime, it certainly isn’t dead. Producers such as The Chainsmokers, Martin Garrix and Zedd are still among the most streamed acts in dance music. In fact, newcomers such as John Summit and Anyma among many others have managed to keep the genre alive. It may not dominate the Billboard Hot 100 anymore, but it is played all around the world at pre-parties, clubs and sports events.
Festivals such as Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival still exist and continue to attract hundreds of thousands of attendees yearly. The distinctive EDM sound that once dominated their main stages has gradually evolved into a wider range of electronic genres. Today, the festivals are more known for the massive visual experience rather than just the music.
Conclusion
EDM is no longer the mainstream force it once was. What once felt fresh and explosive eventually became predictable, but electronic music itself continued to evolve through festivals, clubs and new subgenres. EDM did not disappear. It simply lost its place at the very centre of pop culture.